*The Dogdays* are here- no denying it.I’ve never been a summer girl; I was */born hot/*. Now, if I lived a Caribbean life, or the much more sensible rhythm of
those in warmer climes- The lingering glass of pastis at noon, the leisurely siesta, the gentle early evening ambling along ancient Roman paths near Avignon, so I choose to greet the summer swelter by creating my own personal Paradise vis a vis scent
There are few perfumers who have a signature style. One is is Olivia Giacobetti. Mme. Giacobetti also has an undeniable architecture to her fragrances, that of sheerness in beauty.Mme. Gicobetti returns with three new ‘green’ fragrances for Honore des Pres dubbed the “We Love NY” collection. The fragrances are packaged in that most disposable of New York City commodities the take-away coffee cup. While the packaging around this collection could be termed disposable, or common, the fragrances inside are not. Mme. Giacobetti’s We Love NY collection for Honore des Pres accurately captures many of the more pleasant smells of New York City and if one is up for an unusual olfactory tour your first step should be to acquire these fragrances
As in the words of Jean Claude Ellena, “A perfume must tell a story on the skin”. With eleven of the twelve submissions in, and having sniffed each one, I chose to write about the Mystery of Musk fragrance that told MY story…. Charna Ethier’s Musk Nouveau. The fragrance truly reminds me of the vices of my youth;a flashback to Paris of the early 1980s. Nous rencontrons l’auteur quand elle vivait à Paris
I asked Ambrosia Jones of Perfume by Nature to give us a peek into her creative process as she developed Craving for the Natural Perfumer’s Guild Mystery of Musk Project.
“Musk to me has always been about craving…it is about longing and animal passion….real, animal, natural….which is why “Craving” had to contain real scents, notes that reminded me of things I loved and craved myself….I didn’t want to create a clever perfume, I wanted to create a scent that made people feel passionate…It’s about smells I love, smells that make me feel happy, sexy, satiated….”
Elise Pearlstine’s Verdigris is dirty, it is green, it is as rich and sexy as it was meant to be. The fir balsam, the clary sage and green mandarin greets the nose with a rainbow of bright flavors, the complexity and depth of the natural plant essences matched equally with the animalic drydown.
its as if Eve was indeed approaching Adam in the Garden and I… the voyeur…
From first sniff, the quality of materials was apparent, as if no expense had been spared. This was clearly NOT going to be a timorous, powdery musk. If the submission of Graines de Paradis by Sharini is a portent of things to come, the future of natural perfumery looks pretty damn sweet. Its the real thing!
